Insomnia
by tahdahreads
Summary: Is the reason Jess can't get to sleep because she needs her nightly fights with Nick? And what happens after two long days of heated bickering between the two? Takes place after the season finale!


Jess Day couldn't sleep.

Initially, she assumed that was only because Nick was still blasting his college mix of rock-jams from across the apartment. And initially, she totally hadn't minded. After about 23 minutes of Pearl Jam, Barenaked Ladies, and Chumbawumba, however, Jess and Schmidt had joined Winston in banging on Nick's walls to get him to shut the tunes off. But even after the music silenced and she cozied herself back into bed, sleep didn't come to her. She looked over at her Choco Cat alarm clock - 12:05. Not too bad, Jess thought. She'd easily be able to wake up with bright eyes and a smile for her class tomorrow morning. She had graded all her papers, she only had a few more Arbor Day drawings to look over from her students. All she had to do was sleep.

She shut her eyes for a while, slamming them closed in a nearly belligerent order for sleep, and of course, nothing happened. She tossed and turned, she listened to soft music like the early Simon and Garfunkel albums, she counted sheep (though she had never really understood why that would work; she always ended up naming the sheep). Her toes clenched and unclenched impatiently as she waited for some sort of satisfaction. Jess glanced back at her alarm clock - 3:14. When did three hours pass by? Jess groaned and swung her legs over the side of her bed. Scrunching her nose up at her sheets, she threw them aside, shoved her feet into her slippers with an undeniable "umph" and walked through her bedroom door into the kitchen.

Jess stared monotonously at the microwave gently warming her mug of milk. Was warm milk just a theory? Did people even do that anymore? She had heard the Warm Milk bit over and over again in stories and on sitcoms and during saturday morning cartoons when she was listening to middle school Cece talk about puberty, but she had never really bothered to test it out. It always seemed like the milk would turn into cheese by the time it was actually warm, and even so, would that have some strange curdling effect? Would it -

_Beep! Beep! _The microwave broke Jess out of her train - or trance - of thought. Coming out of her impatience and slowly wearing down to complacency, Jess drew her milk from the nuker and sipped. It did seem kind of calming, she supposed.

"Jess?" she heard a grumbling voice from across the room.

"Woah! Woah, hey, hello? Guys?" Jess jumped up, a bit of her milk splashing over the side of the mug and burning her hand. "AH! Jeezie Louisie."

Slowly, Nick's figure began to lean itself over the back of the sofa like a throw blanket. "_Jess,_" he mumbled. "What the hell are you doing awake right now?"

Immediate guilt fell over her. Of course Nick was sleeping in here - he didn't have any furniture, any bedding, any _anything_. It was all still out in the moving truck in front of the apartment.

"Oh god, Nick, I'm so sorry I woke you up! I'm just - let's - yeah," Jess stumbled over to Nick with her milk-mug and tried to hand it over to him.

"What is this?" he said slowly, pulling a face, holding a blanket firmly up to his shoulders.

"It's warm milk! I woke you up, it's supposed to help you get to sleep," Jess cheered, "I think."

"What? Warm milk, that's gross!"

"No, it is not! People drink warm milk to get to sleep all the time!"

"Cats drink warm milk because people leave milk out in the middle of the day for them. Why would I want milk warmed?"

"It's soothing! It's -" Jess stopped, and huffed. "Nick, I'm sorry I woke you up. Would you like my warm milk to help get to sleep?"

Nick rolled his eyes and threw himself back onto the couch. "No way, Jess, you go drink your milk-cheese on your own."

"It's not cheese! It's milk and it's warm and it's cozy and it helps you get to sleep!"

"Jess! I don't care! Oh my god, I don't care, go back to sleep!"

Jess could feel her nostrils flaring. "You were the reason I couldn't get to sleep in the first place!"

Nick rolled over and shoved his face in his pillow_. "_Goodnight, Jess," he stage-whispered angrily. He adjusted his T-shirt underneath the thick fleece blanket._  
_

Jess started to say something and caught herself - it was 3:30 in the morning. She didn't want to wake up Winston and Schmidt. She didn't even want to be awake herself anymore. She took her milk mug and stared and the contents glumly before emptying it in the sink. It clearly wasn't going to do her any good. She leaned up against the kitchen counter for a while, wondering if she could feel herself getting tired yet, before hearing Nick's deep snores from across the room.

Then, something clicked. Jess carefully tiptoed over to Nick on the couch, crouching next to him."Nick?" she tapped gently on his shoulder with two fingers. "Nick! Hey!" she whispered. All she got in response was a lengthy groan, followed by Nick rolling over to face away from Jess on the couch with his nose buried between the pillow and the couch cushions.

"Nick!" Jess's whisper became louder and sharper.

"_Whaaaat,_" Nick moaned out.

"Hello! Good, you're up," Jess rolled her eyes at herself. "I need you to tell me why you came back."

Nick's eyes opened hesitantly. "What?"

"Tell me why you came back. I think that's why I can't sleep," Jess said softly, her eyes creeping away from his face in slight embarrassment. And as her eyes moved down his body toward his -

"Oh my god, _NICK!_" Jess screamed. "Why don't you have any pants on!" Her hands jerked up over her eyes. "Nick, people sit on this couch! Come on!"

Nick let out a startled yelp before scrambling to yank to blanket back over his newly exposed bodily areas. "The blanket fell! It fell, the blanket! Why were you looking?"

"Why are you using the living room blanket as a - a _business cover up?_"

"Jess, get out of my room!" Nick yelled, his turtle face popping through.

"This is not your room!" Jess yelled back. "This is the living room! I knit there, Nick! I grade papers! And you're letting your twirly friend dance all over it!"

"My _what?__" _Nick spat out, extremely bewildered.

Schmidt's door whipped open and his head popped out. "_Guys_. I don't know what you are yelling about this time, but I really _cannot_ afford to have bags under my eyes tomorrow. It's performance reviews. Come on."

Nick and Jess looked at each other angrily as Schmidt went back to his room.

The silence lingered between them, but neither broke eye contact. Jess crossed her arms. Nick crossed his arms. Jess gently pursed her lips. Nick made his angry turtle face.

"Go put pants on," Jess whispered loudly at Nick and pivoted around, walking towards her bedroom.

Nick sat up on the couch, blanket firmly wrapped around his waist. "You put pants on."

"I'm wearing pants!" Jess stage-whispered, whipping around at Nick.

Jess entered her room, flinging off her slippers and practically threw herself under her covers. And somehow, wonderfully, she found sleep within minutes.

* * *

As easily as Jess found sleep after fighting with Nick the night before at 3:30 am, she definitely wasn't prepared for what a 3 hour sleep would do to her before a long day of teaching. She started out well - two cups of tea before class kept her going until about the beginning of the geography lesson when she couldn't make it through the word Mississippi without yawning. She almost forgot to take up the arithmetic assignments from the day before, which she was certain a few of the boys in the class would have loved. The end of the school day was grueling - at least it was Friday. She could go back to the apartment, pull out her knitting needles, and watch a movie. She could take a quick cat nap on the couch -

Well. At least on the _other_ couch.

Jess rolled her eyes and swung her teacher's bag over her shoulder. It was a Friday night, and while she was never one for going out and partying like Cece, she knew she could have a nice, relaxed night to herself.

Her thoughts were rapidly moving on the ride home. Why couldn't she get to sleep in the first place? It seemed as though she should have been satisfied and sleepy and easily drifted into slumber. Nick had finally come to the right conclusion, she wasn't fighting with anyone, and her body was exhausted from two long days of pseudo-camping from the night before.

It couldn't seriously be satisfaction that was keeping her from sleep. Why was it that she could fall straight to sleep after arguing with Nick? Why did it take irritation to get her tired enough to go to bed?

Could it actually be fighting with Nick that was allowing her to fall asleep so easily?

Jess sighed and considered this; every night was something new with Nick. The kitchen sink, the time he stepped on her talking stick (and she knew it was _so_ not an accident), and more recently Caroline: every night a new argument, every night a peaceful sleep.

Sliding the key into the door, Jess shook her thoughts away. She wasn't an aggressive person and she _hated_ confrontation if she hated anything at all. She had never liked fighting - how could it be a good thing at this point? If fighting wasn't even a thing she could get in her relationships, a sad point she hit with Russell, it wasn't going to be a high point in her friendship with her roommate.

Jess waltzed into the apartment with a bounce in her step, excited about starting her Friday-night wind down and tossed her bag onto the kitchen counter. She bent over, unbuckling her yellow flats and slipping out of them, when she heard what sounded like angry muppets screaming from Nick's room.

"No, if you pull it, it's going to break down and we're going to get charged out the _ass _from Remy!"

"Getting charged isn't going to be as much as a damn locksmith, Schmidt!"

Winston and Schmidt were arguing in Nick's room? But where was Nick? Jess creeped into Nick's bedroom and poked her head into the door. "Guys? What's going on?"

"_Jessssss!_" Nick groaned from the other side of his closet door. "Jess! Help me get out of here!"

"What is Nick doing in his closet?" Jess asked, walking towards the boys.

"Nick got himself locked in there." Schmidt sighed. "If we bust the door down, we're going to get overcharged and overfined, _way _more than the cost of a locksmith."

"No. Uh uh. No way. A locksmith will be _way_ more than a charge from Remy - Remy won't even know it's broken if we just make it look like it's fixed!"

Schmidt scoffed, "And who's going to fix it? Nick? Yeah right."

"Guys, I'm right here, come on," Nick pleaded from inside the closet. "Seriously, it's so cramped in here! My arm is going to fall off!

"What's wrong with his arm?" Jess asked.

"It's pinned between one of my suitcases and the wall of the closet. Jess, get me out! They've been arguing over how to get me out for two hours! Jess!"

Jess bugged her eyes out. "Two hours?"

"He's been locked in there for way longer though. I came home early from work to prepare for my dinner with a client for this. And believe me, if the Schmidt charm works on Cece, I will _definitely _be closing this deal tonight," Schmidt grinned from ear to ear.

"Ew, come on, Schmidt," Jess groaned.

Winston rolled his eyes. "Jar," he said, pointing towards the kitchen.

Schmidt continued, "I was going straight to my room when I heard him yelling about 127 Hours from in here."

"Guys, please don't cut my arm off!" Nick yelled from the closet. "My legs are cramping. My legs are cramping!"

Winston turned to Jess, "We think he's lying down with his legs up against the back wall and his arm pinned backwards, but honestly, we can't be sure."

"You guys," Nick moaned out. "Please get me out."

"Well," Jess started. The two boys looked at her. "I think we have to bust the door down."

Schmidt groaned and Winston did a miniature victory dance in the center of the room.

"Then again," she continued, "who can actually bust the door down?"

Schmidt threw his hands up, "Guys, as strong as these biceps are, I bruise like a peach. Seriously, I just, I can't."

Winston backed up and gave a nod the Jess before throwing himself against the door.

"_OW! STOP!_" Nick shrieked from inside the closet. "Oh my GOD, it's hitting me in the face!"

Jess bugged her eyes out once more, "Your face is right there?"

"Yes! Stop busting the door down!"

"Woops. Sorry man," Winston called. "So what do we do now?"

Jess sighed. 'I guess this means goodbye to my relaxed night,' she thought. "I'll call a locksmith," she started.

"YES!" Schmidt cheered for himself.

Jess gave a quick look to Schmidt, "You go get ready for your dinner. It's almost five, you probably have to go. Winston, will you wait with Nick for the locksmith?"

Winston's face fell into a frown. "I'm really sorry, guys, I have this thing with Shelby. She wants me to go see this art show with her - she said I need to explore my intellectual bounds in my artistic mind," Winston said. Schmidt scoffed.

Jess sighed and looked at her feet. "Yeah, okay then. I'll wait here with Nick for the locksmith."

The boys left the room and she quickly went to look up the number for the closest locksmith. He was two or three blocks away, thank goodness, but it would still take him about 45 minutes to get to the apartment with all the supplies they'd need. Jess set her phone down and sat by Nick's closet.

"Nicholas? How 'ya doing?"

Nick huffed from the other side of the closet door. His only other response was a long groan.

"How did you get in there, Nick?"

"I was trying to put my stuff back on the top shelf of the closet."

Jess smiled quietly, "I thought you didn't like the top shelf because you thought height was overrated?"

"I wanted to just reorganize everything I guess - you know, try to get my life back in order starting with all my stuff."

"And then what happened?"

"I stepped onto two boxes that were stacked up and I found - something. I found something on the top shelf and I leaned too far backward and everything fell backwards. The first thing I reach for was my closet door and I was just sort of hanging between the top shelf and the door. Before I knew it, I had yanked the door shut and fallen all the way down. Now there's this weird wooden shard from my shelf jammed into the door and the lock and I'm stuck under this stuff and I can't find my right foot and -"

"What did you find?"

"What?"

Jess paused. "What did you find on the top shelf that made you fall?"

"Is that seriously all you're focusing on right now? Jess, I - "

"_Was it porn?_" Jess yelped, whipping around to face the door.

"It wasn't porn!"

"Oh my god, it _so was! _Nick! That's gross!"

"It's not gross! And it _wasn't porn!_"

"I bet it was."

"Jess, I swear to god, once I get out of this closet -"

"Also, are you sure your foot is okay? If you can't even feel it and all," Jess let her sentence drift off.

Nick smiled in the tiny, dark space. "Yeah, I think I'll be fine, Jess. Thanks."

Jess smiled. The two switched their topic quickly and started talking about Jess's work day. They talked about Nick's last conversation with Caroline, and his move back into their apartment. They even talked about Remy and whether that monstrous man was really okay with Nick moving back in - or maybe a little too okay with it.

Sooner or later, 45 minutes had gone by and Jess heard her phone ringing. It had to be the locksmith, calling to be let up into the apartment. Jess looked at the door, then back at her phone.

"Oh thank god, is that your phone? That must be the lock guy," Nick moaned.

Jess leaned against the closet door. "Nick?"

"Jess, answer your phone!"

"Nick, I'll let the locksmith up in a second, just," she grinned slyly to herself, "tell me what you found on the top shelf."

"You really want to know, Jess?" Nick said after a moment.

"Tell me."

"It was that sex coupon you were going to give Paul."

Jess's eyes popped for the third time that day. "My..nerdy sex coupon?"

"Nerdy_ Weird _sex, actually," Nick corrected. She could practically hear his grin from outside the closet.

"You kept that?"

"Well, I didn't think I still had it. That's why I was so surprised to find it at the top of my closet. Hence, my fall. Hence the locked door. Hence, you _answering your phone for the locksmith, Jess_?"

"Oh!" Jess snapped out of her trance. "Right! She immediately picked up her phone - the locksmith had already hung up. She bolted out Nick's bedroom door and managed to catch the locksmith right before he pulled away. And of course, Nick was rescued. Needless to say, the locksmith had a little trouble opening the door considering the lock wasn't _actually_ the problem - it was the bit of wooden shelf that had lodged into the door. Fortunately, he was very kind and helped shove the door open without causing too much damage - just a little chipped paint. Nick, cramped and sore, crawled onto the floor in front of the closet and laid there for 20 minutes before slowly limping out of his bedroom onto the couch.

Jess made dinner for herself - spaghetti and frozen broccoli and another cup of chamomile tea - and joined Nick on the couch. It wasn't exactly what she had in mind when she wanted a relaxed Friday, but she didn't mind. She got to help her roommate without too much stress.

But why had Nick kept the coupon? You don't keep something like that without knowing that you're keeping it. Why hadn't he said anything before? How had she not realized he would've kept it?

Jess shook her head and stared at her empty dinner plate. She had been asking herself too many questions for a night she wanted to base on relaxation, and she didn't need it right now. She propped her bare feet up on the table in front of her and wiggled her knees together, asking herself why she was still wearing her pink stockings from the school day and not PJs.

Jess bit her lip cautiously. "Nick, do you want to watch a movie or something?"

Hopefully he'd agree to something like Funny Girl or The Princess Bride - God knows he wasn't going to agree to Dirty Dancing.

"Jess, does it bother you that I kept that coupon?"

She expected to see a face full of insecurity when she looked up at Nick - an expression of wary hesitance, something she saw often when she fought with Russell and something she'd seen Nick have when approaching tense subjects like Caroline and like law school. When she finally looked up at him after putting her plate and fork in the sink though, that was definitely not what she saw.

Nick was smiling slyly from ear to ear. He was looking down at her, leaning casually against their kitchen counter. Taking the sink sponge in hand, he broke eye contact with her and began to rinse his own dinner dishes. "You know, I mean, it would totally understand if it bothered you. Why would I keep it, right?" he said, charm and confidence dripping on every word.

"I - no. It doesn't bother me," Jess spoke, lifting her chin quickly, "Why should it?"

"Ah, I don't know," Nick responded casually. He paused and wiped his wet hands on the dish cloth hanging over the oven door. Turning to lean his back against the counter once more, Nick brought his eyes back to hers. "Just checking." The corner of his mouth lifted.

He hadn't done anything wrong. He hadn't even done anything antagonistic in the slightest, but somehow he _infuriated_ her.

Nick didn't bother her when she talked about Russell or work or Cece, or anything really. When she was upset, when she was stressed, when she was worked up, Nick was there for her. Nick was calm and approachable and only slightly judgmental, but nevertheless someone who was a team player. Someone who didn't like to toy around.

When Nick ever talked about his own past - seeing Caroline at the wedding, bickering with Schmidt over law school, worrying about money, about health - Jess could easily see right into him. She could see when he was upset and when he was bothered. Jess was always able to connect with him and at least attempt to make him feel better, even if it was clear that she was mostly just pissing him off. She knew she wasn't the best person for him to talk to all the time; she knew she wasn't exactly the therapeutic voice he needed. For the most part, she could tell he just got annoyed with her, and she was perfectly complacent with that because she knew they had those moments together - the ones where she knew exactly what he was thinking before Schmidt or Winston could. The instances where she could smile at him and they both knew it would actually comfort him and not just bug the hell out of him.

Seeing Caroline at the wedding was only the start of it. Jess wasn't stupid - she knew he was drunk, much more drunk than he let on after stepping out of that photo booth. She knew that his playing with her may have only been the first clue that he was still in love with the blonde girl at the wedding with the pretty dress. But for a brief period of time, she was there for him. And somehow, it didn't seem like that moment was the same as any moment he had with Schmidt or Winston. Taking him the doctor was another example. Countless times since she moved in with him, she felt the click that she knew he had to know was there. She knew they weren't roommates - they were friends. They pissed each other off, but they were meant to...you know. Hang out. Be buds. Right?

Jess scrunched her nose up. She was thinking unclearly. They were roommates and they were friends.

And then Nick had these times when...God, she could stomp her feet just thinking about fighting with him. He was incorrigible. He was so confident, so alluring - no, not alluring. A roommate and good friend can_not_ be alluring.

He was toying with her. All the time, he was toying with her and she knew he was. Their fights at night were one thing, just one step in the direction of practically scratching his finger under her chin and saying "Ha." She wanted to slap him and she wanted to do... other things. Not to him, of course.

Their fight the night she found him with Caroline in the apartment - she couldn't believe she got so worked up. She couldn't see why she wouldn't just let him make the horrible, God-awful mistake of moving back in with her (for what, two weeks? He wouldn't have been able to handle it) on his own behalf. And at the same time she couldn't even believe he brought her there, to _their _apartment. Not that it mattered who he slept with. Why would it?

And besides, he shook his ass at her. What was she supposed to do? Not retaliate?

Jess huffed at Nick softly. She quickly scampered over to the side of the TV and started digging through their poorly organized apartment-wide collection of movies. "Well, I'm watching a movie. If you'd like to join, our options are The Princess Bride, Big, Up - why is Die Hard in the Jess section? There's Schmidt's seasons of E.R. - oh! There's Fern Gully if you - "

"It _really_ bothers you that I kept it, doesn't it?"

Jess whipped her head around.

"What makes you think that, Nicholas?" she said, trying to stay soft.

"Jess, you're doing that thing. You're pushing everything to the surface. You're trying to make _every_thing okay by watching a movie or hanging out or whatever."

Jess looked him up and down. He could be trying to be sweet - then again, he could be just softening her up for the blow.

"No, Nick, I'm totally fine. I just didn't - "

"Well that's good, because I totally didn't plan on giving it back."

Jess snapped. "WE'RE WATCHING A MOVIE, NICK."

Nick made his turtle face.

Jess paused, and shuffled her weight on her feet, realizing sheepishly that she had yelled. "I - I'M GOING TO GET IN MY PAJAMAS. WHAT - UM - WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO WATCH?"

Nick continued to stare at her, turtle face and all. Jess shuffled on her feet a little more and looked at the ground before quickly pivoting and bolting to her room to change. After changing, she knew Nick would notice her beet red face. She walked swiftly to the sofa - Nick's _dirtied_ sofa and grabbed the remote.

"Did - did you pick something to watch?" she asked.

"Did you pick a new vocal volume?" he asked her in return, raising an eyebrow. "Because I mean, the one before was okay, but - "

"I'm sorry I yelled. It's just been a really long day at work," Jess said, looking at Nick genuinely. She placed a hand on Nick's shoulder closest to her. "I didn't mean to yell at you - really, Nick, I'm sorry."

Nick smiled at her gently and turned back to the TV. "Ah, it's okay. I'm hoping your class wasn't too terrible?"

"No, I was just so exhausted. I mean - I know you knew I was up so late last night. I just couldn't get to sleep until after I talked to you last night, and it was a really rough day with my class after only sleeping for a few hours you know?" Jess smiled. She was glad she had someone to vent to.

"Yeah," Nick smiled tenderly. "Besides, I'm guessing a hot dinner and getting in your _pajama outfit_ really helps you get relaxed."

"Are you seriously just trying to rub me the wrong way?" Jess snapped.

"I'm just saying, they wouldn't make a shirt part and a pants part of it if it wasn't an _outfit_. Besides, you were't even wearing one of your pajama outfits last night, you were just wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. Maybe that's why you can't sleep! Your body has adjusted to an outfit-necessary environment."

"Why would you remember what I was wearing? I think you should've been a lot more focused on what _you weren't wearing_!"

Nick rolled his eyes and moved up from the couch. "You can't be serious, I didn't have any of my clothes! I didn't have any of my underwear, it was out in the van!"

"Oh please, Nick. You wouldn't have had the _van in the first place_ if you hadn't decided to move in with her."

"Jess, come on, I'm back now. I get it. You think I can't make decisions for myself, you think I'm an idiot - "

"Nick we've been over this -"

"No, no, no. You think you'd be able to make my life decisions better than I would."

"_No, _I _don't_, Nick. But maybe if you listened to me for two seconds you'd get that I don't think your stupid, I just want you to understand why I don't agree -"

"Agree on what? Caroline? We both know that's not going to happen!" Nick yelled.

Jess leaped up off the couch. "Yeah, because we _both know_ that she's wrong for you!"

"Come _on, _Jess, I knew Paul was wrong for you the second he came in here on Thanksgiving and you didn't listen to me for a second. You could scream in me in the hallway about it, but you couldn't listen to me about it for two seconds!"

"Paul was - different! I thought Paul was right for me - "

"And Russell! You called me abnormal! You called all of the guys abnormal to make sure that we made Russell happy!"

"Oh please, you loved Russell more than I did," Jess yelled. "Paul and Russell were _new_, Paul and Russell both had chances!"

"Caroline had - something!" Nick stumbled.

"Caroline had a _hoo ha _that she was willing to_ - _"

"You know what, Jess? I'm just _never _going to be enough for you as a fellow human being. You'll never be okay with my standards of decision making. Is that it? Caroline would _never _be enough for you to come into this apartment and Paul was never good enough for you either. And you know what - what the hell was wrong with Russell? Was he not good enough for you either? 'Cause, _seriously, _Jess, if he wasn't good enough as a boyfriend, I don't know what you expect of me as a _damn_ roommate!"

"He - just - that is _so _not your business, Nick!" Jess screamed.

"What even happened with Russell? Huh? Did he not like the way you pronounced snickerdoodles either, Jess? Because _seriously_, that is _not _the way it's pronounced!"

"I will pronounce snickerdoodles however I want, Nick! Just shut your mouth about Russell, got it?" Jess yelled, straining her voice. "It is none of your business and you are just - you are getting on my last nerve, Nick!"

Nick huffed. "Yeah?" he yelled. "Am I? Why don't we get out your feelings stick and see how I _feel_ about it and let me _break it in half!_"

Jess had had enough. She was exhausted. She was overworked. She had been consistently overruled by her roommates, by Cece, by the _damn _principal, by Remy - hell, even by those boys in the back of her class that refused to do their assigned homework even after she had talked to each of their parents _multiple _times!

Jess tackled Nick.

She had scuffed her feet on the carpet, dug her fingers into her palm and set at Nick in a dead sprint before throwing her weight at his stomach. The two of them didn't go very far - Jess couldn't be over 130 pounds and Nick was a solid 175 at the lightest. They went far enough, though, for both of them to topple back onto the carpet behind them. Nick's body slammed against the floors, Jess on top of him, both completely having the wind knocked out of them.

Before she could say a word, Jess slapped a hand over her mouth. What had she done? She tackled her roommate. _She tackled her roommate! _Oh God.

"Oh God, Nick, oh my God, I'm so sorry!"

Nick let out a mile-long groan. "Jess! What the hell!"

"I'm so sorry, Nick I'm so, so, so - "

Jess stopped mid-sentence when she felt her world being turned over - literally. Nick had rolled the both of them over and was now holding himself above her on the floor.

"Jess, did you just tackle me?" he said, still slightly out of breath from having been knocked to the ground.

"I - I'm so sorry, Nick, I didn't think - "

"Well." He started. And slowly Nick started laughing. He hovered over her, his legs straddling her lap and his grin grew and Jess pursed her lips tightly.

"Nick, really. I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine, Jess." He said, pausing. Jess waited for what seemed like hours.

"And? Are you going to let me up?"

Nick laughed out his typical barking laughter again. He stood above her slowly and lent down a hand to lift her up. Jess felt the rough skin of his palm and something jumped inside her as he pulled her up. He yanked her toward him just slightly as she was pulled to her feet again and she looked up into his eyes.

"You should just know that I'm definitely not giving that coupon back now."

Jess's eyes bugged out. Her jaw dropped. She watched Nick walk towards his empty bedroom without turning over his shoulder once.

"You - " Jess started. And suddenly it clicked. Everything she had wanted with Russell, everything she thought she hated here - it was one in the same. And for some reason, she couldn't stand that thought.

Jess ran at Nick again and jumped onto his back pounding his chest from behind. "Give me that coupon! Now!"

Nick let out a howl of laughter, "No way! Not happening!"

Nick bolted over to the couch with Jess on his back and flung her off onto the sofa cushions. Jess stood up, extremely unaware of her balance, and attempted to grab hold of him again, before realizing he was throwing her over his shoulder.

"Nick, let me go!"

She started to scream for her release one more time when she realized where his hands were. One of his hands was reaching for the bathroom door, the other was placed firmly on her behind. She felt herself growing hot - not with embarrassment, but with something else entirely.

That is until the hand on her posterior left and ran up to her waist. Both of his hands grabbed her firmly and placed her in the corner of the shower.

"Nick - " Jess shrieked, realizing what he was about to do. "NICK, DON'T - "

But before she could get out another word, Nick had yanked the shower knob on and shoved the curtain closed.

"You need to cool off, soldier!" Nick barked from the other side of the shower curtain. Jess panted at herself in disbelief, holding up her hands against the freezing stream of water. She brought one hand to her face to keep her glasses from slipping off and used the other to turn off the shower. Jess stood there for a moment, hearing Nick's quiet and stifled laughter from the other side of the bathroom. Jaw agape, she whipped open the shower curtain and turned to look at Nick. Upon making eye contact with her, Nick couldn't take it anymore and practically fell to the floor with laughter.

"You - you look like a wet puppy!" Nick managed to choke out through laughs.

Jess glared at him and stormed out of the bathroom. She heard Nick's footsteps following behind her.

"Oh come on, Jess, it was a joke!"

"SHUT UP, NICK," she yelled without turned to look at him.

Nick ran up behind her and grabbed her waist before she could get to her bedroom. Jess shrieked - her clothes were freezing and she couldn't deny how incredible his warm body felt against hers. He turned her around in his arms.

Jess felt herself up against him. She looked his face up and down. There wasn't much of her that wasn't touching him at this point and she didn't know how she felt other than just confused and hot and -

"Jess, tell me what happened with Russell," Nick said softly. His face was inches from hers. He knew. She didn't know how he knew, but he knew why she broke it off with Russell. He just needed to hear it.

"Because -" Jess started. "Because we didn't fight."

Nick tried his best not to smile at the soaked girl in his arms. "Yeah, that's what I Schmidt told me. He said Cece told him."

Jess scrunched up her face and let out a groan of anger, twisting in Nick's arms to let her go until he kissed her.

The second his lips touched hers, everything went from cold to hot in the flash of a second. His tongue intertwining with hers. She didn't know how she whipped off her soaked pajamas so quickly, but she did and just as quickly, he shirt came off - the only thing that broke their mouths apart for a moment.

"Bed," she mumbled.

"Right," he spoke back to her quickly. Her grabbed her upper thighs and yanked her up over his hips, carrying her to her own bed as quickly as he could. He tossed her onto the duvet and she managed to tear off his pants magically without ripping off the button. Her hair was wet and her face was bright red and her throat was rough from screaming at him all night and she wouldn't have had it any other way.

This is what she had been missing. This is what she had been waiting for. And she loved it.

Nick's hands were hot all over her body. His fingertips were gentle, his palms worked and rough. She couldn't get enough of him and couldn't see how she didn't need it before now. But she did, she needed him, in every possible way.

Their sex wasn't perfect - it wasn't even close. It was fiery, it was incredible, but it was never perfect - it was much more real than that.

After finishing, Jess fell asleep almost instantly. Nick didn't mind - he cleaned himself up and climbed back into bed with her. He kissed her just for good measure - just in case she wasn't asleep. Hell, even if she was asleep.

Jess woke up easily the next day. She had never felt so well-rested. And when she looked at Nick, she knew she had never felt so satisfied.

* * *

**Thanks for reading - please let me know if you think I should continue this! I may bump it up to an M rating if I decide to do so.**


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